Surrogate Turkey Families Being Sought on Cape Cod

Turkey poults have been hatching for several weeks now in Massachusetts and sadly many newborns are without their parents. Now one local wildlife rehabilitation center is looking for adoptive turkey families out on the Cape.

This is actually the second shout-out for wild turkeys with babies that Wild Care Cape Cod has put out on Facebook in the last few weeks. We spoke with Stephanie Ellis, executive director of Wild Care Cape Cod, who told us they currently "have four baby turkeys from one family that came with us from Kingston, MA and did not have a mom."

She added: "Unfortunately, I don't know why they were momless and why we received them from so far away!  But I am glad they came to us. We will find them a foster family for sure."

That is exactly what the animal rehabilitation facility is looking for now.

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They've put the word out through Facebook in hopes of finding roaming wild turkeys in either Eastham, Orleans, Harwich or Chatham that have baby turkeys amongst them. Seems as long as the turkey poults with the wild turkeys are about the same age as the poults Wild Care Cape Cod are raising, the two can easily blend together.

Unfortunately, young turkey poults cannot just go out into the world on their own. According to the MSPCA-Angell branch, turkeys are social animals that "learn from each other, usually by imitating older birds. Through this process, they learn how to find food and how to navigate the boundaries of their home range."

That means these little orphaned turkey poults at Wild Care Cape Cod need a wild turkey family to adopt them. So now the wildlife center needs you.

Here's hoping someone out there sees a wandering family of wild turkeys on Cape Cod regularly enough that the baby with Wild Care Cape Cod can become adopted and learn all there is to know about being a wild turkey in Massachusetts.